After a long career building 'affordable luxury' fashion brands, he and his partners Guillaume Foucher and Linda Hazi have just managed to ink a deal with the world's largest luxury conglomerate, LVMH, for their small hotel startup, Fontenille Collection .
The company, which Biousse co-founded with Foucher in 2016, is now able to acquire new properties. Since the deal went through in December, they have grown the portfolio from 11 to 15 hotels, located throughout France, Italy and Spain. And their spending spree continues under the direction of CEO Linda Hazi, who joined Fontenille in 2022 from Sephora (also owned by LVMH), where she served as commercial director.
Though the financial terms were not disclosed, LVMH's minority stake in this small company suggests an interest in expanding its travel offerings into more affordable markets, compared to their ultra-luxe brands like Belmond, Bulgari Hotels ⁘ Resorts, and Cheval Blanc. Jean-Jacques Guiony, then CFO of LVMH, called it "an opportunity to discover a complementary universe." (He has since taken the position of Chief Executive Officer of Moët Hennessy, the wines and spirits division of LVMH).
It would be easy to say this is simply a love letter to French savoir faire . But if you look under the hood, it's much more tactical. Frédéric Biousse is the former fashion executive of SMCP Group who made multi-million dollar deals long before buying a French vineyard that eventually became Fontenille. These days, high-end retail and luxury hotels are looking more and more similar. And as Biousse himself will tell you, it's the years in retail that made the difference.
"When I acquired Sandro in 2007, there were just 21 people in the company and we had two stores. So we grew it. We opened in 34 countries, and we grew from $2 million to $1 billion in nine years. In 2010, I sold a 51% stake in SMCP to LVMH, and then in 2013, the [American private equity firm] KKR took a majority stake," recalls Bouisse. The Chinese company Shandong Ruyi acquired the group from KKR in 2016.
Reference: Found here
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